February 18, 2011

When I was originally writing this article in my head, my headline was going to be focusing on Saturn (the planet of responsibility and government) and Uranus (the planet of sudden, incredible change) and their role in the chart of Egypt. I was so sure this was what I would see in the chart that I didn’t even look at the transits until a couple of days before I was planning to sit down to right.

Oh boy.

The country is having a Saturn return, which you would expect, but Uranus, usually the driver of these sorts of things is doing nothing. Bugger all. Zilch.

In hindsight, which is always very accurate, I shouldn’t have been as surprised. There are a few things which happened in Egypt which were unusual. The protest, while it lasted a week, was incredibly peaceful. The police attempted to incite the people to violence, but they refused to rise to the challenge. That in itself is amazing – keeping calm with a group of that size which is that angry is virtually impossible. Women were marching in the streets. The army refused orders to move on civilians. And Mubarak stepped down (well he would, he saw what happened to the last guy.)

Instead, the energies around what has happened in Egypt are very feminine and Pholus is directing the energy of change that we would normally associate with Uranus. This is very unlike what is happening with other countries in this area now following Egypt’s “lead” and asking for their regimes to stand down. These countries don’t have the same balance of the Goddess asteroids in their charts, and their protests are doomed to be bloody and in vain at the moment.

Event chart and aspects

The chart I am using for the modern Egypt is for the date of June 18, 1953, with a time of 11.30am local time. This gives us a Gemini Sun, Virgo Moon and Virgo Ascendant. The Black Moon is also on the ascendant, with the Black Moon and the Moon both falling in the twelfth house. This very interesting conjunction forms a grand trine with Venus in Taurus and Chiron in Capricorn.

In the past, women have been held in higher esteem in Egyptian society than elsewhere. This is of course a bit difficult under an Islamic regime where women are required to be segregated by the men, but the aspecting of these energies does emphasise that, although women have not been allowed to participate in society as fully as women have elsewhere in the world, they still have major influence on the way the country thinks and the way the country works.

There is also an interesting T-Square in action between Saturn/Neptune, Ceres/Uranus/Mercury and Chiron which deserves a closer look.

I am loving the Ceres, Uranus, Mercury conjunction, as this seems to reinforce that women (represented by Ceres, traditionally the mother of the harvest) are doing a lot of communication behind the scenes and that a lot of change would be coming from this area. Women are the communicators. Watching the footage of the protests, I saw more women than men speaking to the journalists, articulating very clearly what was needed and the outcome that was desired by the people. Women have had to suffer through isolation, but they also will be the country’s healers (opposing Chiron) .

The Neptune/Saturn conjunction is squaring the aforementioned, which can either be lovely or nasty. Saturn can represent the responsibility and dependability, or the old school, the authoritarian. Neptune can either be spiritual and creative, or lacking in direction, scattered and fickle. The Mubarak regime certainly represented the latter. However, with Saturn returning to its original place in the chart (and the chart for Mubarak’s reign also having a Saturn return) it was absolutely time for the Egyptians to reassess the system they had and to replace it with one they actually want.

The one last thing I want to look at in the event chart is the placing of Pholus, which is exactly conjunct the North Node. The nodes in astrology represent the journey being undertaken, with the North Node pointing out the direction a person or event is heading towards. With the North Node and Pholus in Aquarius, Egypt as a whole is interested in the bigger picture, the welfare of the group. Pholus in Aquarius can see the end result and will leave no stone unturned to get there. It may take a little while to throw off the shackles of the opposite pull from Leo, but change will be major, revolutionary and very, very fast. This also means that Egypt will be the political and social leader for the Middle East, and other countries will try, probably in vain, to follow their example.

Transits

As with all these sorts of things, the seeds of unrest would have been brewing for a while, although probably not in a way that was noticeable to us in the west who weren’t really looking.

There are two important groups of transits that I believe are very important in what is happening in the country at the moment. The first of these is the asteroid Pallas Athene, which is transiting over Chiron and, as such, is activating everything else which is aspecting Chiron.

In myth, Pallas was the daughter of Zeus and the only child born from his head rather than from a woman. She is a warrior and a woman of great intelligence. Pallas disliked fighting unless absolutely necessary, and would prefer to use her intellect to win her battles than her sword. Pallas aspecting Chiron, trining her astrological sisters the Moon, Black Moon and Venus it is little wonder the revolution was so peaceful. With Pallas on Chiron, opposing Uranus Mercury and Ceres, it was time for movement out of the shade by Pallas, riding on the back of Chiron into fight for the people and their values. It was interesting to note the role the media played in the uprising, to the point that journalists were being invited into groups of protestors because they wanted to show the world the Egypt they could foresee.

The peaceful nature of the uprising is also emphasized by the aspecting of the asteroid Vesta by the Sun, Chiron and Neptune. Vesta represents home and hearth the sacred heart of Egypt which was ripped out by Mubarak’s regime. This overthrowing is expressing a deep desire to return to what the country should be about – peace, happiness and the rich culture. Other countries in the region which are putting down revolts are dealing with protestors who are protesting for very different (Mars/masculine) reasons.

On the day Mubarak stepped down, the Moon was on the event chart’s Nessus. In the mythology of Nessus, Nessus is killed by Hercules for raping his wife Deianeria after carrying her across the Euenos. Prior to his death, Nessus gave Deianeria a shirt, telling her the potion on it would make Hercules faithful to her. Instead it was poison, and Nessus managed to posthumously kill Hercules.

It’s quite easy to see Deianeria as Egypt and Mubarak as Nessus. Mubarak did say he would prefer to die rather than hand over the reins of the country, although he became less serious about that when, possibly, someone offered to make that happen for him. Still, it does make you wonder if there is some sort of nasty surprise lurking which has not yet been revealed.

Trying times for Egypt are not yet over. A new government has yet to be formed, and there are some interesting transits coming up. Mars will become conjunct with the event chart Vesta on February 22. There may be some bloodshed around this time, or possibly there will be the announcement of a new military leader. By mid March, Pallas will be on Pholus, and once again the people will be demanding the new regime do what they have promised. Transiting Pholus is also making a slow painful creep towards the IC of the event chart. I’m not entirely sure what will happen when it gets there, but I’m sure it will be big.